Vol. H-0007 No. H-0003 March 2002

OUR TRUE VINE

​​I love to plant flowers because I enjoy their beauty. Of course, I can’t just plant them and then ignore them, expecting them to be beautiful without any effort on my part. They need food and water, pruning and weeding. If I don’t prepare the soil properly before I plant them, and then periodically fertilize them, then the flowers won’t have sufficient nourishment to reach their ultimate blooming. If insufficient rain falls then I must water them. As each bloom flourishes and then withers at the end of its appointed time I have to pinch it off in order for new blooms to flourish. When weeds grow in my flower beds I must pull them out so that they won’t rob my flowers of the nutrients in the soil.

Yeshua told His disciples a parable (Luke 7:4-15) using this same principle - what is planted must have the proper basis and support in order to live. Many times Yeshua used examples in nature to explain spiritual principles to His followers. In John 15 He provides us with a natural illustration of the spiritual relationship He desires us to have with Him.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”(John 15:111)

Our Father Yahweh desires us to glorify Him with our lives - to keep His commandments and to love others as He loves them. These are the fruits which He desires us to bear. He knows that we cannot bear this fruit by ourselves. We must draw from Yeshua in order to bear this fruit. Yeshua is the True Vine. He is our Source of nourishment without Whom we cannot produce fruit. We must abide (dwell, remain, reside) in Him. That means we must learn to live in His Presence, allowing Him to touch us by His Spirit, to teach us, to love us, to guide us, to indwell us.

Only when we allow Him to do this can we bear the fruit that the Father desires us to bear. If we do not learn to live in His Presence and allow Yeshua to do His work in us then we will be unfruitful, spiritually drying up, to eventually be gathered up and thrown into the fire. This is not what the Father desires. He sent His Son Yeshua to us in order for us to be able to be the children that He desires us to be. But He doesn’t force us to be branches on His Vine. We must choose to allow Yeshua into our lives and then continue to allow Him to dwell in us so that we can receive from Him all that the Father has for us, so that we can be all that the Father has designed for us to be.

Let’s go back to my flower beds. Have you ever thought about what it is in the dirt that makes things grow? We look at dirt as something - uh - dirty! But to plants that grow in the ground the dirt is their source of life. The dirt has minerals that trees, bushes, flowers, even weeds absorb through their roots in order for them to grow. The dirt holds moisture from the rain, which the plants also absorb. The secret of life for the plants is in the dirt. If a plant is pulled out of the ground it dies.

Our lives are not so different from the plants. We, too, must be rooted and grounded, watered and fed. However, our source of life is not dirt. Our Source of Life is the Word of Life - Messiah Yeshua.

He is our Source of nourishment. He satisfies our thirst.

Yeshua told the Samaritan woman he met at Jacob’s well, “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”(John 4:13, 14)

We can tell when plants have not had sufficient food and/or water. They appear dry, limp, discolored. We also experience this principle within our physical bodies. When we haven’t had sufficient water or food our physical appearance changes. It is the same with our spirits. When we have had insufficient spiritual nourishment we become spiritually weak. In order to remedy our spiritual malnourishment we must seek only one thing - Our True Vine. If we do not abide in Yeshua, Our True Vine, then we will die a spiritual death. But Yahweh does not desire us to die a spiritual death. He sent His Son Yeshua to die for us so that we can have an eternal spiritual life with Him. Yahweh desires us to believe in His Son Messiah Yeshua and to abide in Him so that we might have eternal life. (John 3:16) What He desires for us, He provides for us.

Now I know why I derive so much pleasure from working in the yard. The Holy Spirit draws me there to learn more about my relationship with Yeshua. Yeshua’s words become real in my hands as I plant and prune, weed and water. He has so much to teach me if I will learn to abide in Him. I must choose to abide in Him. All of us must choose to abide in Him Yeshua, our True Vine.

Paul prayed for the believers in Messiah Yeshua in the community of Ephesus -

“For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.”  (Eph. 3:14-19) May this prayer be fulfilled in all of Knowing The Times in our lives.

As we abide in Yeshua we share in His love for His People Israel. They are the apple of His eye (Zech. 2:8). Our fruit-bearing must include loving His ‘apple’ as He loves them. Chapter 11 of Paul’s letter to the believers in Messiah Yeshua in Rome explains how deep is the Father’s love for His People Israel. We encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to “read” His words to you. We also encourage you to keep abreast of the events in Israel and the Middle East, as well as events around the world, as they relate to His People Israel. Yahweh desires us to make this choice - to love His People as He loves them (Deut. 32: 9, 10) and to obey His command to pray for them (Ps. 122: 6-9).

FROM THE BRIDEGROOM

"Look how beautiful My blooms grow, rooted in the Water of Life. For My Son is the only Life, the True Life, pure and clean, free-flowing to all who would drink their fill." (January 28, 1997)